Samir Shukla
By Samir Shukla
Animals in different ecosystems around the planet mark their territories in their own manners, create boundaries for survival. A pissing here. A scratched rock there. A hole in a tree or the ground. Under corals or inside a shell in the sea. In wide open prairies or thick woodlands. Under a rock in a stream. These are their homelands. This is their entire known universe. They live and survive there. In that little hole, that shelter. Even mass animal migrations usually wind up with the creatures returning to their homelands. Their familiar and marked territories.
This brings us to a uniquely human concept that only humans can conjure. Us, the migratory, restless, ever conjuring and conquering beings. Us, the defenders of property and lands. Us, the owners of things. We took the animal kingdom’s instinctive marking of boundaries to new heights and created the concept of nations.
These very specific markers, lines drawn down to millimeters, these things called borders, these invisible lines that demarcate nations are humans laying down territorial claims. They may be fenced or walled or wide open. Some are long established lines while others are still unsettled. Still fought over.
They are human weavings of the geographic and watery parcels of the planet. Ever since humans began gathering and creating settlements, this notion of nations took hold.
Creating nations. Assigning borders. Fighting for sovereignty. Are these bordered parcels of land necessary? The simple answer is yes. Chaos and anarchy are not nice things. Nations create a sense of order. The immediate pushback to the notion of nations is the brutal history of humans. I understand. The violence and the thievery of lands inhabited by others and reformatted into newer nations. Found lands. Stolen lands. Reclaimed. Stolen or conquered again. Sadly, our capacity for brutality only worsens when it comes to defending, creating, or expanding nations.
On the flip side, nations offer something that is felt to our cores – identity, belonging.
In this moment in history, though, I don’t want to talk about the human foibles or negative things that can be tagged to nations and borders.
This moment is about a unique nation. In all the scattering of borders through history, a nation was carved out of a vast land 250 years ago. America, this land.
There are myriad issues and divisions within this nation of America. Then again, what other nation, community, or tribe doesn’t have similar dilemmas? At this juncture, this July, I’m not going to spend words highlighting the past or current negatives. Not in this space. Not today. I’m interested in the incoming possible, the continuing story of Americans, people gathered in this land from every corner of the globe, making it their own.
In this land, within the boundaries of a nation called America, I’ll say this without reservation. My nation. My country. My America. This juncture I will wholeheartedly celebrate for what this country has given to me, my family. The person it has helped me become. I sing a song of assured stillness, this personal patriotism, no bogus bravado or chest pounding need apply.
This patriotism is not beholden to any political party, posturing or ideologies. No one can define it for me. It is lived. It is celebrated. It evolves. It is mine. I feel it in my bones.
In this moment, I don’t need to be reminded of historical record. I want to celebrate a unique nation and the possible future. The continuing work of America. Our commonalities are not scarce. They are sometimes temporarily forgotten or misplaced.
I cherish this moment in history. I celebrate this date. July 4, 2026. The red, the white, the blue, beaming bright. This number. 250 years. Quarter millennial.
Onward.
Samir Shukla is the Editor of Saathee Magazine
Contact: samir@saathee.com
Twitter / X: @ShuklaWrites
Newsletter: ShuklaWrites.Substack.com
